"I can only tell you that the chair and the shadow are not actually separate but in fact, still one. Should something happen to the chair, the shadow shall in turn change or simply disappear in turn but if something happens to the shadow, nothing happens to the chair, because the shadow can simply be replaced the chair cannot however what if the shadow becomes a solid? Will it still be affected from the source or will it persist as is"
~Teacher Veya - Late stage golden core.
Without sensation, without direction, without a need for certainty, a man or what could be considered a man drew an image moving from one place to another without anchors.
The void, beyond the realms called universes was neither flat, round nor solid, it exists is a state that is both one dimensional and 4th dimensional. At times the distance from one universe to another could take billions of years to traverse, other times it may simply take but a moment.
A universe that is only but a step away could be long gone by the time you take the first step or maybe it is only just forming and what you saw was simply an 'image' of its future, a universe so far away that it cannot even be perceived might suddenly appear befor you, only to suddenly disappear like a shadow meeting the sun.
Like an accordion with many folds every 'step' you take could reveal many unseen 'infinite' universe's, some are only shadows along the path unable to be accessed unless you take the correct path in both space and time, should you wander too far too fast you may find the path you traveled no longer there with only a remnant shadow of the past flashing in and out of perceived reality.
At times you may find yourself traveling a trillion years yet the distance traveled no more then meters from your starting point, space folded onto itself to such a point that you could spend forever trapped a step away from infinity, other times a smooth path may present itself allowing for the traveler to move so far beyond their original start that a single step wouldn't allow for their return.
Should one of these infinite folds in space unravel, all space in the surroundings will be pushed aside welcoming the creation of a new universe. All that has been pushed aside now becoming a barrier of destruction protecting all that exists within from the chaos of the void.
The void has no true distance one can say it has 0 lenght yet at the same time is infinite, it has no time yet time is ever present, there is nothing in the void yet it is filled with universe after universe.
To traverse such such a place one cannot use maps, one cannot rely on simply luck, one cannot lose focus but a moment, one must have reached the peak of their technological, physical, mental or other 'power' to be able to simply survive in this void.
Power.
Absolute unyielding power.
This is the single most sure way to travers the void.
When you cannot be sure of the direction to your desired destination, simply unleash a torrent of energy in all directions to avoid falling into a pit of madness.
Truly a simple yet effective method.
With an ever changing void at your feet, unleashing boundless energy to force a path to stay open or to creat a brand new path by piercing through layers of space is what will keep one from death.
As for the things swept along the path, well that's their problem.
"Lerim, oh lerim, you are such a funny creature" God haven looked befor him, darkness greeting his sight in all directions.
Yet his eyes did not reflect the darkness ahead but a vast and shinning web of light in all directions.
Lerim merely glanced at God haven.
For the past five years - at least for those traveling within the safety of the universe traveling array - they have been fighting foes from across all manner of existance, each battle could last but a few seconds while others a millenia.
To lerim the past Vast tree universe was but a flash in his memory, a single though wasn't allocated to its fleeing inhabitants or their struggles.
Simply to say, he had spent tens of billions of years going from pathway to pathway, universe to universe, fighting, fleeing, and simply having a good time without regard about the past.
While his enemies avoided folds in time keeping their hate and rage fresh in their minds, lerim had simply forgotten all about them, often times bewildered as to why someone would lay in ambush for him.
God haven on the other hand, knew full well as to why they had fought but not caring to inform lerim about it, God haven simply enjoyed the novelty of the conflict until he forgot the original reason for the conflict only to remember once more for a good laugh.
Fight once, then twice, thirty times, nine million times, eventually the reason for the fight would change or simply be resolved, to God haven such a fleeting moment wouldn't be memorable even if it led to one more death.
Lerim looked at a black orb in the palm of his hand.
Glittering light spotted it's surface as it revolved within the orb.
"Worried about your universe?" God haven asked.
Lerim stroked the surface of the orb "It's my first time creating one, after failing time after time, I don't want this to end in failure"
"You can always make another one but I understand your sentiments, your first universe always feels special" God haven gave a soft smile despite his brazen speaking.
"My entire exsistance and family line is held in this orb, that and every other being I've ever found an interest in, plus some memories I can no longer remember at this point, its not simply about the universe itself but what it represents for me... ah I guess it does feel special in a way" Lerim looked fondly at the orb, the beings inside the orb revered him as the creation God to them he was the one and only true God, or maybe not?
Like many sentient beings, each came to their own conclusions and created a God to better fit their image rather then the other way around.
Lerim could descend upon them himself and still be shouted at as a lunatic or heretical god.
This did not matter to lerim, in the end all creatures inside that universe are under his protection, subject to his warmth, wrath... carelessness, or even negligence.
Lerim looked at God Haven "Old friend I have followed you here because you've promised me a safe place to rest away from all of these old 'enemies' that may cause harm to my universe, I hope you keep your word"
"Worry not, the place we are about to enter has no one for us to worry about in the near future... mostly" God haven smiled brightly.
Avoid all conflicts? Impossible.
Madman roamed everywhere in the void, it was simply a game of chance at some point in time. Who knew if you randomly stepped on some hidden universe killing its inhabitants and fueling a million year conflict with some heaven defier.
You could hide or run away until you forget it ever happened, that doesn't mean the past transgressions won't amount to anything just because you no longer remember it.
Still... Everything in the nearby void was about to die either way, why not make a few enemies here and there.
"I hate when you have a smile like that on your face, it always leads to one of us dying" Lerim was warning God haven with his eyes.
"Oh come now, thanks to this smile you have learned to travel through the void with relative ease now" God haven teased lerim.
"Yeah by getting stuck in spacial folds for millions of years!" Lerim retorted shaking his finger in anger.
"Oh here it comes" God haven changed the subject.
A white goo like veil appeared as if summoned by their presence, a times a tentacle of sort seemed to push forward only to retreat back the way it came and head in another direction seeking a way avoid areas of folded space.
Slowly but surely it found a path through trial and error leading straight towards God Haven and Lerim.
"Huh? Thats neat" Lerim looked at the object ahead with a little surprise.
God haven kept quiet, simply softly smiling as Lerim looked at the -universe traveling array- he created in a long forgotten past.
Lerim wasted no time using his spiritual sense to prod at the goo like veil that covered his entire field of vision, only to be meant with surprise when he saw the insides of the veil.
"Ships! hundreds of, of millions of them, just what... is that a giant tree? Just what is this array? I don't sense any active gods or heaven defying cultivators, no! There are but... how can a bunch of riff raff looking people create this? Did all those dormant gods and cultivators just have no choice but to leave it up to chance? Must have been a pretty desperate time, old friend I'm not sure how this is supposed to be safer for us" Lerim was bewildered at the sight, even after several billion years of traveling this was an extremely rare sight.
The only beings that dared to travel the void had either been born as a god like being or ascended beyond their universes limit, no it was more right to say that the only beings that COULD travel the void had to be powerful beings of unmatched might in their own right.
"While it's not impossible for lower beings to travel the void, its generally ruled to be an unwise decision. Most of all if they attempt to do such a thing with such numbers" Lerim was truly surprised
Upon closer inspection Lerim could already see many faults in the defensive array.
"It seems to be missing several parts, it almost looks like someones early attempt to mimic a universe barrier, sadly a very early attempt albeit with the ability to traverse the void on its own, brute forcing it's way to safety" Lerim accurately described his own handiwork and it's failure.
"Everybody starts somewhere" God haven added.
"Lets get a closer look, might as well right?" Lerim lead the way breaking into the universe traveling array without alerting it's inhabitants.
"I see, each ship acts like an energy reflector, unable to absorb energy instead pushing away energy in all directions further increasing the energies volatility, its like a giant self powering battery in here. There seems to be three or four main areas the energy is converging to power the array sheild" Lerim was analyzing the array as he looked on.
"This high energy space somehow negates the affects of the void to a degree but it seems to also add a bit of hardship, if anyone below a certain power steps outside of those ships they are basically going to fry almost instantly. You will either have to expend a great amount of energy to travel between each ship or simply be strong" Lerim continues to accurately describe his own work.
God Haven decided to simply keep quite, watching the surroundings for any abnormality.
Lerim had gone to one of the many Arks, inspecting the makeup as best as possible along with its inhabitants.
"What is this? Some of these materials, how is this possible? Did these guys invade half of all creation or something? I feel like I've seen these things yet at the same time it merely looks like something I've seen" Lerim had seen materials made from different energies befor, he had seen certain energies with thousands of different elements but it was the first time he had seen the same singular type of energy have such variance.
God Haven intervened here "Many objects tend to resemble each other and even do the exact same thing as another objects from a different universe, its nothing new but the amount of variance we see here is a little much, even mixing different energies into one solid whole"
"A little much? the energy that emanates from the materials looks like it comes from over a billions different sources! We've only looked at one ship so far, even if all these ships come from different places it still wouldn't be possible for a singular ship to have such a variance in spiritual energy, the amount of places that ship would have had to visit or trade for ~ to aquire materials that all do the same thing is just... insane!" Lerim inspected ship after ship seeking an answer to this riddle.
"1,428,948,493,386 different spiritual signatures from just 10,000 ships this confirms it, all of these ships come from just one source, a real endgame universe that devoured all it's neighbors, crazy its just crazy!" Lerim took out his orb universe, he looked a little discouraged compared to befor.
"Can you tell what the main energy is lerim?" God haven probed a little, pride welling up from inside him.
"Its... it's refreshing, no suffocating like a vast forest with no way out. I'm guessing that massive tree is probably the home base were the purest materials from the original universe are kept. Wait something feels oddly familiar, it all just keeps feeling... like I've forgotten something" Lerim lost himself in thought, searching through his billions of years of memories.
"Ah, Ahahaha~ Haven you really are something" Lerim's hand entered his orb universe pulling out a small 17 cm shard.
The small shard was filled with an air of death and decay yet seemed to hold on to a very minute thread of life.
It was the last remains of the spiritual planet Lerim had taken from the Vast tree realm, time had not been kind to it.
"Unfortunately it did not survive after multiple fights with heaven breaking practitioners, now it is once more home" Lerim lamented the loss of this planet, it was truly one of few in existence... probably he didn't really know, it was the only one he found throughout his life at least.
"Well part of it anyway" God haven remarked.
Lerim once more stayed silent, sensing every little detail he could within the array.
"There are several areas that seem to have a massive amount of spiritual energy, no lesser to this planetary shard remain at its peak. I doubt they are spiritual planets, most likely they are spiritual havens of equal worth" God haven mentioned in passing, Lerim tended to take what he 'found' as a form of self gifting when no one was looking, a bad habit that stuck with him his entire life.
"Let's take a look then" Lerim seemed to recover from his reminiscence.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Elio Nordaine Black, black of hair, black of eyes, pale of skin.
From the moment of his inception he should have been able to run, he weighed so much he could only crawl, he should have been able to think and talk from birth, sadly too much information was given to him all at once causing many information black holes to appear in his head, his mind became clouded.
His body made of pure spiritual energy had collapsed onto itself creating a spiritual energy black hole, whenever he tried to sense spiritual energy he would fail just like a mortal.
He had everything he need to succeed...
Too much.
He had too much too early in life.
At 2 years old, he could barely push out a sound from his vocal cords, at 3 years old he forced himself to stand and walk crushing the ground below - sinking several feet below ground, at 4 years old he could walk but had trouble stopping due to his weight and the momentum building up beyond what he could handle often crashing into a wall just barely saving himself from launching himself into the void.
Slow accumulation of small successive milestones built up over time had allowed him to be relatively normal in his actions physically but he still lacked mentally.
By the time he turned 5 years old he could mostly talk although in broken speech and sentences, he could do anything anyone else could do with their body without worry, yet without a clear mind cultivating was a fools dream for him.
It was not that he lacked thought, what he lacked was sense.
He had to much of everything.
A perfect body? He went beyond that.
A perfect mind? He surpassed all known cases.
A perfected spiritual root? No one could even identify it.
Flawless.
He should have been flawless.
Yet by the time he was 5 years old he could hardly think, he could hardly talk, he could hardly sense spiritual energy.
A waste.
A cultivation waste.
Yet, this did not stop him.
His body was so tough he never received an injury, no matter what hit him.
He was so strong that he never lost a battle of strength, stone would turn into powder from his mear touch.
Without using a speck of spiritual energy his body moved so fast he broke the light speed barrier creating a blackhole from the breaking of space time.
His thoughts were clouded but his base stats kept him alive even against the toughest opponents, try and catch him? unless you could move at light speed impossible to even see his shadow.
He weighted so much that even getting near him drew you in from the gravitational force, getting hit with a punch at the speed of light with an unmeasurable amount of weight behind that punch... He deleted your atomic existence with pure brute force.
While stronger cultivators could do the same after thousands of years, who could do such a thing upon inception?
At 10 years old he finally had the basics of speech learned - finally allowed to move without feeling his own weight.
It was a large step forward for him.
Sadly this year his mother died, a concept he had no understanding of.
So caught up in the notion of death he never asked how she died.
Those around him simply looked on in shame.
His protector and jailor now gone, an entire new world opened up befor him.
A world filled with new sights, new people and a whole lot of danger.
Fueled by the need to explore more, his thoughts grew explosively.
Yet as time passed he felt increasingly disconnected.
20, 40, 60... No matter who or what crossed his path he felt nothing.
No excitement exsited in his world.
Every part of his life meticulously writen by his caretaker, his guard, his sisters.
By 100 he had reached a breaking point, he didn't care anymore. He needed something, anything to keep himself sane.
That's when it came, a proposal, a marriage proposal. Nothing new, he had received tens of thousands from anyone seeking to marry up, yet this time he was seeking a change.
He tried his best to give her everything in life, so much so that his own family thought him crazy.
Should she tell him the most mundane of story, he would pay attention to her every word like nothing else mattered, should she wish to walk hand in hand simply for companionship he would drop everything he is doing for her.
If she wanted the world, well he wasn't sure if he should kill eveyone and gift it to her or if she would want the world as a whole to serve her, he would aquire it nonetheless.
In the end he promised her happiness... He shouldn't have done that.
In the end nothing but tragedy follows him.
As he saw the bodies of his children lying headless on the ground, as he saw his wife shatter befor his eyes, as he saw the terror in the eyes of all who noticed the calamity that befell them, he let out a single self deprecating scoff.